Bilateral Trade Flows and Income Distribution Similarity.
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Martinez-Zarzoso I
PROVIDER: S-EPMC4854469 | biostudies-literature | 2016
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Publications
Bilateral Trade Flows and Income Distribution Similarity.
Martínez-Zarzoso Inmaculada I Vollmer Sebastian S
PloS one 20160503 5
Current models of bilateral trade neglect the effects of income distribution. This paper addresses the issue by accounting for non-homothetic consumer preferences and hence investigating the role of income distribution in the context of the gravity model of trade. A theoretically justified gravity model is estimated for disaggregated trade data (Dollar volume is used as dependent variable) using a sample of 104 exporters and 108 importers for 1980-2003 to achieve two main goals. We define and ca ...[more]
Similar Datasets
Project description:In principle, trade and investment agreements are meant to boost economic growth. However, the removal of trade barriers and the provision of investment incentives to attract foreign direct investments may facilitate increased trade in and/or more efficient production of commodities considered harmful to health such as tobacco. We analyze existing evidence on trade and investment liberalization and its relationship to tobacco trade in Sub-Saharan African countries.We compare tobacco trading patterns to foreign direct investments made by tobacco companies. We estimate and compare changes in the Konjunkturforschungsstelle (KOF) Economic Globalization measure, relative price measure and cigarette prices.Preferential regional trade agreements appear to have encouraged the consolidation of cigarette production, which has shaped trading patterns of tobacco leaf. Since 2002, British American Tobacco has invested in tobacco manufacturing facilities in Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa strategically located to serve different regions in Africa. Following this, British America Tobacco closed factories in Ghana, Rwanda, Uganda, Mauritius and Angola. At the same time, Malawi and Tanzania exported a large percentage of tobacco leaf to European countries. After 2010, there was an increase in tobacco exports from Malawi and Zambia to China, which may be a result of preferential trade agreements the EU and China have with these countries. Economic liberalization has been accompanied by greater cigarette affordability for the countries included in our analysis. However, only excise taxes and income have an effect on cigarette prices within the region.These results suggest that the changing economic structures of international trade and investment are likely heightening the efficiency and effectiveness of the tobacco industry. As tobacco control advocates consider supply-side tobacco control interventions, they must consider carefully the effects of these economic agreements and whether there are ways to mitigate them.
| S-EPMC5686832 | biostudies-other
Project description:Cereals are an important component of the Indian diet, providing 47% of the daily dietary energy intake. Dwindling groundwater reserves in India especially in major cereal-growing regions are an increasing challenge to national food supply. An improved understanding of interstate cereal trade can help to identify potential risks to national food security. Here, we quantify the trade between Indian states of five major cereals and the associated trade in virtual (or embedded) water. To do this, we modelled interstate trade of cereals using Indian government data on supply and demand; calculated virtual water use of domestic cereal production using state- and product-specific water footprints and state-level data on irrigation source; and incorporated virtual water used in the production of internationally-imported cereals using country-specific water footprints. We estimate that 40% (94 million tonnes) of total cereal food supply was traded between Indian states in 2011-12, corresponding to a trade of 54.0 km3 of embedded blue water, and 99.4 km3 of embedded green water. Of the cereals traded within India, 41% were produced in states with over-exploited groundwater reserves (defined according to the Central Ground Water Board) and a further 21% in states with critically depleting groundwater reserves. Our analysis indicates a high dependency of Indian cereal consumption on production in states with stressed groundwater reserves. Substantial changes in agricultural practices and land use may be required to secure future production, trade and availability of cereals in India. Diversifying production systems could increase the resilience of India's food system.
| S-EPMC7610577 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Trade agreements are thought to raise trade integration, but existing preferential trade agreements (PTAs) are insufficient in measuring market access of products. This study develops a product-based coverage index of PTAs using the World Trade Organization (WTO) preferential trade agreements and calculates bilateral trade measures using the EORA multi-regional input-output (MRIO) tables covering 189 countries worldwide over the period 1990-2015; the structural gravity model is employed to test how PTAs affect bilateral trade. Our findings show that countries sharing a common PTA could boost the trade volume compared to those without PTAs, supporting the trade creation effect. However, the trade promotion effect of the product-based coverage index of PTAs is significant only if the member countries are low-and middle-income countries. Further, the wide range of product liberalization brought by PTAs can promote global production networks by stimulating the trade of intermediate goods. Our results are important for understanding the market access effect of PTAs with the increasing development of trade integration and global value chains (GVCs).
| S-EPMC8009400 | biostudies-literature
Project description:This paper examines the impact of COVID-19 on bilateral trade flows using a state-of-the-art gravity model of trade. Using the monthly trade data of 68 countries exporting across 222 destinations between January 2019 and October 2020, our results are threefold. First, we find a greater negative impact of COVID-19 on bilateral trade for those countries that were members of regional trade agreements before the pandemic. Second, we find that the impact of COVID-19 is negative and significant when we consider indicators related to governmental actions. Finally, this negative effect is more intense when exporter and importer country share identical income levels. In the latter case, the highest negative impact is found for exports between high-income countries.
| S-EPMC8513914 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BACKGROUND: Semantic similarity searches in ontologies are an important component of many bioinformatic algorithms, e.g., finding functionally related proteins with the Gene Ontology or phenotypically similar diseases with the Human Phenotype Ontology (HPO). We have recently shown that the performance of semantic similarity searches can be improved by ranking results according to the probability of obtaining a given score at random rather than by the scores themselves. However, to date, there are no algorithms for computing the exact distribution of semantic similarity scores, which is necessary for computing the exact P-value of a given score. RESULTS: In this paper we consider the exact computation of score distributions for similarity searches in ontologies, and introduce a simple null hypothesis which can be used to compute a P-value for the statistical significance of similarity scores. We concentrate on measures based on Resnik's definition of ontological similarity. A new algorithm is proposed that collapses subgraphs of the ontology graph and thereby allows fast score distribution computation. The new algorithm is several orders of magnitude faster than the naive approach, as we demonstrate by computing score distributions for similarity searches in the HPO. It is shown that exact P-value calculation improves clinical diagnosis using the HPO compared to approaches based on sampling. CONCLUSIONS: The new algorithm enables for the first time exact P-value calculation via exact score distribution computation for ontology similarity searches. The approach is applicable to any ontology for which the annotation-propagation rule holds and can improve any bioinformatic method that makes only use of the raw similarity scores. The algorithm was implemented in Java, supports any ontology in OBO format, and is available for non-commercial and academic usage under: https://compbio.charite.de/svn/hpo/trunk/src/tools/significance/
| S-EPMC3240574 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Given a vast concern about high income inequality in Thailand as opposed to empirical findings around the world showing people's preference for fair income inequality over unfair income equality, it is therefore important to examine whether inequality in income distribution in Thailand over the past three decades is fair, and what fair inequality in income distribution in Thailand should be. To quantitatively measure fair income distribution, this study employs the fairness benchmarks that are derived from the distributions of athletes' salaries in professional sports which satisfy the concepts of distributive justice and procedural justice, the no-envy principle of fair allocation, and the general consensus or the international norm criterion of a meaningful benchmark. By using the data on quintile income shares and the income Gini index of Thailand from the National Social and Economic Development Council, this study finds that, throughout the period from 1988 to 2021, the Thai income earners in the bottom 20%, the second 20%, and the top 20% receive income shares more than the fair shares whereas those in the third 20% and the fourth 20% receive income shares less than the fair shares. Provided that there are infinite combinations of quintile income shares that can have the same value of income Gini index but only one of them is regarded as fair, this study demonstrates the use of fairness benchmarks as a practical guideline for designing policies with an aim to achieve fair income distribution in Thailand. Moreover, a comparative analysis is conducted by employing the method for estimating optimal (fair) income distribution representing feasible income equality in order to provide an alternative recommendation on what optimal (fair) income distribution characterizing feasible income equality in Thailand should be.
| S-EPMC10994331 | biostudies-literature
Project description:AimTo describe the global insulin market.MethodsMarket intelligence data, United Nations Commodity Trade Statistics for insulin trade, the International Medical Products Price Guide for prices of human insulin and additional web searches were used as data sources. These sources were combined to gain further insight into possible links among market, trade flows and prices. Descriptive statistics and Spearman's rank order correlation were used for the analysis.ResultsA total of 34 insulin manufacturers were identified. Most countries and territories are reliant on a limited number of supplying countries. The overall median (interquartile range) government procurement price for a 10-ml, 100-IU/ml vial during the period 1996-2013 equivalent was US$4.3 (US$ 3.8-4.8), with median prices in Africa (US$ 4.7) and low- (US$ 6.9) and low- to middle- (US$ 4.7) income countries being higher over this period. The relationships between price and quantity of insulin (Spearman's r=0.046; P>0.1) and number of import links (Spearman's r=0.032; P>0.1) were weak. The links between price and percentage of total insulin from a country where a 'big three' manufacturer produces insulin (Spearman's r=0.294; P<0.05) and total insulin from the main import link (Spearman's r=-0.392; P<0.05) were stronger.ConclusionsThis research shows the high variability of insulin prices and the reliance on a few sources, both companies and countries, for global supply. In addressing access to insulin, countries need to use existing price data to negotiate prices, and mechanisms need to be developed to foster competition and security of supply of insulin, given the limited number of truly global producers.
| S-EPMC6593686 | biostudies-literature
Project description:This paper aims to investigate the impact of environmental regulations on trade patterns, in terms of trade in environmental goods listed in Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Environmental goods are defined here as those that enable sustainable growth and reduce pollution from human activity. For this reason, issues on environmental goods can be put at the forefront to analyze the linkage between environmental regulations and trade flows in the perspective of international institutions. Within the framework of a gravity model, panel data on 112 exporter countries and 53 importer countries is used at a bilateral level over the period of 1989-2013 to gain an understanding of this trade-environmental regulation nexus. This paper proxies the environmental policies by employing the z-score, which includes three comprehensive environmental indicators. The findings indicate that the strict environmental policies impede the trade, and this effect is greater in terms of the environmental goods listed in APEC compared to the ones listed in OECD. Finally, although these stringent environmental regulations reduce the trade flows, they can help to foster the demand for environmentally-friendly products.
| S-EPMC8662949 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Recent experimental observations on combined electrokinetic and shear flows of colloidal suspensions in rectangular cross-section microfluidic channels have shown unusual cross-stream colloidal particle migration and dynamic assembly. Although a new electrophoresis-induced lift force has been postulated to cause the lateral migration of colloidal particles, little is known about how fluid properties and flow conditions impact this force and therefore subsequent colloidal particle migration. Furthermore, no experimental quantification of this electrophoresis-induced lift force is available. We report several key advances by demonstrating that the kinematic viscosity of the fluid can be used to modulate the spatial distribution of particles over the entire microchannel cross-section, with suppression of the colloidal particle migration observed with increase in fluid kinematic viscosity. Colloidal particle migration of ∼10 μm from not only the top and bottom microchannel walls but also from the side walls is shown with the corresponding electrophoresis-induced lift force of up to ∼30 fN. The breadth of flow conditions tested capture the channel Reynolds number in the 0.1-1.1 range, with inertial migration of colloidal particles shown in flow regimes where the migration was previously thought to be ineffective, if not for the electrophoresis-induced lift force. The ability of the electrophoresis-induced lift force to migrate colloidal particles across the entire microchannel cross-section establishes a new paradigm for three-dimensional control of colloidal particles within confined microchannels.
| S-EPMC7855569 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Maintaining a stable exchange rate is a challenging task for the world, especially for developing economies. This study examines the impact of asymmetric exchange rates on trade flows in selected Asian countries and finds that the effects of increased exchange rate volatility on exports and imports differ among Pakistan, Malaysia, Japan, and Korea. The quarterly data from the period 1980 to 2018 is collected from the International Financial Statistics (IFS) database maintained by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). We employ both linear and non-linear Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) models for estimation. The non-linear models yielded more significant findings, while the linear models did not indicate any significant effects of exchange rate volatility on trade flows. The results of the study suggest that in the case of Pakistan, both the linear and non-linear models indicate that increased exchange rate volatility adversely affects exports and imports, while decreased volatility enhances both. This implies that stabilizing the exchange rate would be beneficial for Pakistan's trade. In contrast, the linear model applied to Malaysia shows no long-run effects of exchange rate volatility on exports. However, the result suggests that decreased volatility stimulates Malaysia's exports. Therefore, in the case of Malaysia, stabilizing the exchange rate could contribute to boosting exports. We also found that increased exchange rate volatility boosts exports of Japan. On the other hand, decreased volatility hurts exports of Japan. As for the long-run effects of exchange rate volatility on imports, we found that increased volatility boosts imports of Korea. The study provides various policy implications regarding the impact of exchange rate volatility on trade flows in developing economies. The study highlights the importance of country-specific considerations in understanding the impact of exchange rate volatility on trade flows, and has important policy implications for promoting trade and economic growth in these nations. It emphasizes the need to model exchange rate volatility separately for developed and developing countries and to continue research and analysis to identify ways to mitigate its negative effects on the economy.
| S-EPMC10566717 | biostudies-literature